Bucks comes to an end the
staff of the Centurion said
goodbye to its longest running
editor-in-chief in the
newspaper’s history, Michael
Berchem.
Berchem, 22, journalism
major from Levittown, has
been the brains of the Centurion
operation for the last two
and a half years and sadly,
will be stepping down from
the position to continue his
studies at Temple University.
This Pennsbury High
School alumnus started his
college career at Bucks in the
fall semester of 2008 as a
sports management major. He
remained here studying
sports management until the
spring of 2009 before leaving
to attend York College.
Berchem studied at York for
only two semesters, leaving
behind sports management
and trying criminal justice for
a change.
“I didn’t know what I
wanted to do,” Berchem said.
“I sat down with my father to
try and figure out what would
be good for me.”
After finishing at York,
Berchem returned to Bucks
in the fall of 2010, once
again switching his major to
journalism after realizing
how much he loved to write.
Journalism major are encouraged
to become staff members
of the Centurion and
thanks to journalism professor,
Tony Rogers, that’s exactly
where Berchem began.
“I started out not knowing
what I was doing at all,”
Berchem said. “Tony told
everyone that it was a great
way to bring your skills up
and learn new ones.”
In his first semester as a
writer, he had 22 articles
published in the paper, which
is about double to what is required
for the a student’s first
journalism class. He also
started attending the staff
meetings on Thursday afternoons
and spent his weekends
working on the paper.
Berchem would write about
anything he could think of,
but he has a love for writing
sport stories. He is a very
passionate football fan and
would love to one day work
for ESPN or the NFL Network,
which he knows is a
very hard goal to reach.
With a lot of hard work he
believes that he could reach
this goal, with all the writing
for the Centurion giving him
a step ahead of the competition
in his career field.
Former editor-in-chief and
fellow writer at the time, Dan
Perez, worked with Berchem
as managing editors. About
eight weeks after that, Perez
and Berchem were promoted
due to the lack of work from
the former editor.
“I don’t know if I had deserved
it yet, but I worked
my ass off and my hard work
paid off very quickly,”
Berchem said.
Perez has since left to study
journalism at Ryder University,
but had only good things
to say about Berchem.
“I had a really good time
working on the paper with
Mike and it gave us a chance
to really get to know each
other,” Perez said. “He is a
really hard worker and I
think he is a big reason why
we won so many awards during
our time together.”
Since then, Berchem has
been running the paper and
with that said, the paper has
definitely benefitted with him
as editor.
During Berchem’s tenure as
editor-in-chief the centurion
newspaper has done a complete
overhaul from past versions
of the paper. The paper
went from a tabloid to broadsheet
format and switched
from black and white to
color,
The printing company,
Maclearie printing company
in Quakertown, also threw a
wrench into the mix last
spring when they surprised
the Centurion staff and announced
their email that they
had filed for bankrupcy.
After a brief hiatus, the
Bucks County Courier times
agreed to take over the printing
duties, but it would take
some adjustments from
Berchem and company. The
paper would grow in size and
had to have a completely different
look, which Berchem
designed.
Berchem doesn’t write
much anymore, but still attends
every meeting on
Thursday and comes in every
weekend to make sure the
students have their newspaper
every week.
“It is a student run newspaper
and I do my best to run it and
let the newer people write for
the paper.”
After this semester Berchem
will be leaving Bucks to head
into Philadelphia to continue
writing for the newspaper at
Temple University, but as a
media studies major. He
plans on getting a doctorate
degree, but he is still not certain
what he wants to do with
it just yet.
The two men that will be
taking over for Berchem are
Stephen Godwin Jr. and Anthony
DiMattia.
“I learned a lot from Mike
and I credit him for helping
me become more polished in
all aspects of the newsroom,”
Godwin said. “The thing I
admire him most for is his
work ethic that inspires me to
do the same.”
“For as hard as Mike has
worked on the paper I know
he will be successful in his
future endeavors,” DiMattia
said.
Berchem, even though his
staff may not show it, will be
missed in the newsroom.